Guinea pig owners/ past owners?

Question

Have you ever raised a guniea pig alone, if so how did it do?

Also, if you raised them in groups or pairs how did they do?

Answer 1

they should be fine either way, as long as if you have two, have two of everything, and so on. they like to be interacted with daily, so give them a lot of love!

oh, and avoid IceBerg lettuce. i dont know if you have it where you live, but its poisonous to them! o_O

=]

Answer 2

Guinea pigs are naturally social animals, in the wild they live in herds of up to 30. I've always kept guinea pigs singly, but spent tons of time with them. Just provide them with toys and entertainment while inside their cage. They do fine alone, in pairs, or in groups. As long as they have proper care, a large enough enclosure, attention, and love. Most experts say each guinea pig needs a minimum of about 3 square feet. So it's really dependent upon how much time, money, and space you're willing to give up.

Answer 3

I have always had multiple guinea pigs - I've never had a single piggie because they should never be kept alone.

Despite what so many people are telling you, spending time with your piggie doesn't count!!

You are a human, not a guinea pig. You can not communicate or interact with your guinea pig in a natural, meaningful way. You and your guinea pig do not maintain a dominance hierarchy, do not eat and sleep together, do not run about and play and popsorn together.

Even if you did - how long can a person really spend with a guinea pig? Most people spend their day at school or work, then sleep through the night. Between these two things alone that only leaves about 5 hours a day left. Then you have chores, eating, socialising etc....

Guinea pigs are a social species who NEED the company of their own kind.

It is well known that keeping a social animal in isolation (i.e. without compnay of the same species) causes a huge variety of health and welfare problems, including:

Reduced immune response and increased healing time

Reduced fitness

Depression

Abnormal behaviour, eg sterotypies

Reduced lifespan

In the UK and EU, even lab animal guidelines state that social species should not be singly housed unless there is a strong veterinary or scientific reason for doing so!

Keeping pets is a choice - if you can't or won't look after your pets properly, you should not keep them. And piggies NEED to be socially housed for their health and welfare. There is no excuse for choosing to have a single guinea pig.

Answer 4

right now i have three adult guinea pigs, and i bought one that  was pregnant, UGHH so now i have two little babies too, the lady whom i bought them from wasn't very good with these animals, but anyways i have two girls and a boy (who we keep apart) the boy lives in one cage, alone and is very sweet and the two girls live together and are a little skiddish. But they are all very sweet and get along, although im not sure how they will get along if they are not raised together (mine are siblings) just make sure to put girls with girls and boys with boys

Answer 5

I had bad luck with guinea pigs. They needed lost of love ever day all the time. I would say get two girls and make sure they get along. They were alot of fun though. C:

Answer 6

Guinea pigs are naturally heard animals. They would live in large, organized family groups if they could. They would NEVER live alone. This is not natural, and immediately a single piggy does a lot worse than those that get to live with other pigs.

The true fact is that there is no chance you ar going to spend 24 hours every single day for  up to 8 years with the pig. That's what they do, they eat, play, groom, and sleep together. They should never be alone.

You may hear people saying that males fight or something. This is pure myth. Males and females get alone with eachother fine. And if they don't, you can spend a little time getting them used to one another, there should never be a point where they are impossible to keep together.

The most common reason guinea pigs don't get along is either because the owners didn't conduct a proper introduction, orthat their cage is too little.

Here's a great site: http://www.cavyspirit.com/sociallife.htm

Also, have a look at the cage part of the site.

Answer 7

My guinea pigs kind of live in a "pack".

I have two rescue guinea pigs and one of them was pregnant when I got her.

She had a litter of 3- 2 boys and 1 girl.

Ive kept all of them but the boys live seperatly.

Just recently I bought a new guinea pig and, maybe it was just my luck, they were so easy to introduce and I had no problems at all.

However, 6 guinea pigs is alot of hard work and theyre really expensive to keep due to the ammount of hay, food, vet checkups and time I have to put into them.

Answer 8

I had one guinea pig, she did fine, but it was because I played with her and fed her and gave her affection everyday, if you don't have time to spend every day, forget a solitary pet.

Answer 9

i raised one on his own and i just paid alot of attention 2 him iv also had pairs they fight but guinnea pigs fights are pretty harmless

Answer 10

I have only 1 guinea pig and im raising her alone i just take her out of her cage daily and let her run around on my couch when no one is around and sometime let her run on my bed and she loves it and i also bring one of her little tubes with me so when she get tired she  can go in there untill she starts to run again....and i also put her in her cage for at lest an hour so she can eat and then she can p**p and pee in her cage not on me.